In the morning, Grey woke up with the half-ork already missing. So was the stitched-up pelt meant to soften the ground. How did the ork manage to wrestle it from under him without waking him up was a mystery. The purpose however was quite obvious. She must have taken it to get it washed.

Grey stepped out of his tent.

It was already past noon. He had overslept and no one thought of waking him up. There was so much he needed to do.

‘Useless minions. Well, whatever.’ Grey grumbled.

The orks were busy doing ork things, tanning the hides, sharpening the sticks for traps and the like. However, Grey could not miss the look they were giving to him. The way these women looked at him made him worry. It was hard to nane the feeling they were emitting but if Grey had to say he would say that the eyes the orks had were the eyes of envy and desire. The change in atmosphere was unsettling.

To make matters worse his favourite half-ork was waving the bloodied pelt around like some sort of a trophy. Wasn’t she supposed to go and wash it?

“… So as you can see I am the chief’s first wife!” She pointed at the dirty pelt.

Grey grabbed the article which still reeked of sex and ork bodily fluids. This was a very special time in his life. This was the first time he felt embarrassed. The display was obscene and her words utter nonsense.

“What are you doing?” Grey questioned.

“Ah? Um, taking my proper place as your wife.”

“That can be right. How does that even work?”

The ork looked at Grey as if he was stupid, but it lasted only a split second.

The reality of it was more complex than that, but she explained it in two words. “Ork tradition.”

“Well, I’m no ork. but if that's how things work fine by me.” It didn’t matter to Grey either way. He still will do whatever he wants. “Just don’t go waving this thing around like a flag ever again.”

The ork nodded obediently, twice.

“Where are my men? That trio, did they make a run for it?”

By this point, he expected that, or to find one of them naked and bound in some ork’s tent. After this night the danger level of orks went up in his evaluation.

“Am, no. One took a hunting party outside the camp for training. The other is setting traps. And the third one, is still sleeping somewhere in the tree I think.” His ‘wife’ gave a full report.

“The tree?” Grey found the choice odd. “Never mind. Wake the fool up and tell him to bring his lazy ass here.”

“Yes, chief. At once.”

Grey was about to send him back to the city to scout for the information. He had to know if the nobles decided to escalate that rogue situation with him.

His minion was all too happy to leave the ork encampment. He practically ran away from the place. Grey was no fool, he made a proper threat so that the beastkin don’t delay his return.

No surprise came then right before sunset the beastkin came back.

“Boss, the elf took care of the situation.” He reported promptly.

“So there is nothing to worry about?”

“Not a thing. They didn’t even come for a snoop to our base.”

It seems that Grey worried too much about this thing. So maybe it was time to come back. The encampment was reinforced, and the orks had three new teachers so all was well.

Grey took a woven basked filled with small monster cores and decided to leave the encampment.

“Boss? Hey? Boss?” One of his minions approached him with panic in his voice.

“What?” Grey growled at the annoying minion.

“You can’t be leaving us here.”

“Yes, I can and yes I will.”

“but…”

Grey gave a stern glare. “It’s only for a few weeks. Or shorter if you do a good job teaching these orks. I will send weapons and more supplies soon.”

“I… I understand.” It wasn't like he could protests. “But please send some real food. I can’t survive on berries alone”

“You can always eat monster meat. It’s not that bad. Oh and no matter how hungry you get don’t eat my three captives.” Grey warned.

“I would never!”

“I am only joking. I will include some ‘real’ food.”

“And beer!”

His minion was pushing his luck.

“Are you sure you can keep the orks from it? What will happen if they will get drunk?”

The man gulped audibly. “Yeah, maybe not beer.”

“And keep my captives safe. They can’t escape.”

“Of course. If they slip out, I will have Fabio to track them and haul their asses back.”

“Good man.” Grey patted the wolfkin on the shoulder.

The beastkin began waging his tail. It was almost weird how well such a simple thing as praise worked on wolfkin. The she-devil was right to advise Grey on this.

Grey began his trek back to the city. It was getting dark but the darkness was never an issue. Nor was the dense forest. After all, before the city, the deep forest was Grey’s natural habitat. And he kinda liked the forest, but the city had its perks too. Mainly the food.

Yet, a certain someone was tailing him. Grey could smell her ever since he left the encampment. He hopped she was just seeing him off for a while. But he was out of the forest already and the half-ork was obvious in the plains like a sore thumb, unless someone couldn't see that well in the dark.

It was surprising how well she managed to keep her distance and not lose the track of him. Orks were not known for their dark vision.

“I can see you!” Grey shouted in the distance.

The half-ork ran towards grey.

“Hey, chief!” She greeted cheerfully.

“What are you doing here? Who will wrangle the orks now?”

“The girls will be fine! So can I come with you to the big human camp?”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

It was kind of too late to ask. The city wall was within sight and sending the ork back alone would not be exactly wise.

“Suit yourself.”

The ork put a collar back on, the same one the Guild had issued to her.

“Well remembered. I’ve forgotten about that thing. So any reason you want to come to the city?”

“Aside from being next to your side?”

Grey sighed. “Aside from that.”

“No.”

Grey sighed again. “Just don’t make too much trouble. There are appearances I need to keep. Also, there was this rogue thing and a wounded noble.”

“Rogue thing? Noble?” The ork tilted her head in confusion.

Grey filled her in on details.

“If I catch that rogue, he is a dead man! How dare he assaults your…” she paused trying to remember the word. “lair!”

“Yeah, finding that rogue now might be impossible. And whatever he was looking for wasn’t there, but I have a feeling he will come back.”

“And then I will strike him. Bash his brain out!”

Grey didn’t doubt a single word of hers, the orks were a violent sort.

They talked some more and by no time at all, they were at the city gate.

“Who is there!” The guard seemed quite alarmed by the intimidating two shadows.

“Grey, the peacekeeper. I just finished an errand outside the wall.” Grey flashed his badge. “This is my… companion.”

The man glanced at the badge and looked at the companion with more suspicion.

“She seems a bit off…”

“Excuse me?” The half-ork roared.

Grey stood in between the two right before the ork could slug the guard.

“She’s an ork under my protection. Look.” Grey pointed at her collar. “Approved by the city.”

“By the gods. First beastkin and now orks in the city. How far we have fallen.” The guard spat in displeasure. “Open the gate.”

It didn’t even open all the way, Grey had to duck under the grate.

“They don’t respect you here Chief. How come? Aren’t you the strongest?”

“I am. However, big and mean do not rule the human cities. Well, they are still plenty mean. But otherwise quite puny.”

“I don’t understand how a puny human can be in charge of everyone in such a big camp. How come no one challenges them to a duel?”

“Nobles, their politics and their rules… Human tradition is different from ork. I am not sure I fully understand it myself.”

“You should leave this place and come live with orks.”

Grey didn’t like that idea at all. Orks were not tasty!

Despite the positive report, Grey had entered his lair with caution. It never hurts to be careful. Of course, there were no trouble aside from sleeping guard. He was supposed to watch the door, so he slugged him to teach a lesson. The half-ork kicked the prone guard to reinforce the said ‘lesson’. Indeed, she was quite useful and a quick learner. Or maybe just conveniently violent.

In her office there it was, the she-devil twirling the golden coin in her finger. Upon seeing Grey's return, she frowned. The finger slipped and the coin and tumbled to the ground and into the gap between the floorboards. Her frown quickly turned upside down, replaced by that fake smile of hers.

“I was expecting you.” She grabbed another coin to play from an oversized sack on her desk.

“So, are we in clear? Didn’t the nobles overreact?”

“Since when are you afraid of nobles? But yes, everything is fine. I am not sure what did you do, but it seems they were happy.” She patted the heavy sack.

“Happy?”

“Didn’t you save that noble girl from a certain death?”

He did, but it was also he who got her almost killed.

“They even wrote you a letter.” She handed a peace of paper.

Grey looked at the fancy scribbles. There was even a stamp at the bottom of it. It seemed official. He handed the letter he had no means of reading back to the elf.

“Obviously, you have read it already. Summarise it for me.”

“It’s just a thank you letter really.” The elf shrugged it off.

“Well then… All is well that ends well.” He had left the elf to play with her coins.

“Oh! It would benefit us if you visited that girl tomorrow.”

“Why? Isn’t she just fine?”

“The letter says she is, but just do it. Trust me.”

Ha! He knew better than to trust that she-devil. She must have some ulterior motive, but he will do as she asks. Sometimes it is clever to pretend to play into the scheme.

Anyway, he left for his chambers with the half-ork in tow. It was obvious that she had no intention of leaving his side. Not that he minded.

Grey slumped on his bedding to ponder the issue he had almost forgotten. The assassin-rogue! That obscene man. He had to find him and get rid of him. With luck, the assassin will come back to finish his business. That is if he was stupid. If he was smart, he would know now that he has no chance against Grey, meaning that Grey would need to track him somehow. Yet, aside from some weapons and a pair of stinky boots, he had no other clues of what or where this man was. There was some dumb name the assassin had shouted, but unfortunately, Grey had all forgotten such an insignificant detail.

As he was pondering such things, an idea came to him. He can always ask the nobles to help him track this man. After all the assassin was the one who had hurt the shrimpy mage girl.

No! He was after her all along! – a convenient lie.

Grey smiled happily at his own genius. Yes, he will see Ignis tomorrow and iron out the details.

In between Grey’s intellectual distractions, the half-ork had found her way onto his bedding and by his side. It was almost embarrassing how he didn’t notice her advances, not until she was kissing his neck.

He really didn’t have much to do until tomorrow, so recovering some mana sounded like another genius idea.

…

The monstrous sounds were haunting the elf. Those shrieks weren’t something a human could make. Of course, she was well aware that they didn’t come from a human. Yet still, she could not help but feel unsettled and restless. Sleep was no longer an option.

She knew Grey liked to torture his prey before eating it. But this was going above and beyond of what someone sane could tolerate. Was Aerith even sane at this point? She refused to think about that particular issue, she was alive that was what mattered. That and the fact that she was filthy rich.

But not even the pleasant feeling of the coins soothed her mind at this point. The screams were giving her nightmares and she wasn’t even asleep. Maybe, just maybe she could ask him to kill his prey more quietly.

She stepped into the corridor and only then realised that the noise wasn’t coming from the basement. He was doing it in his room. That was no good, the blood was not exactly easy to scrub out of the boards. That’s why they had the dungeon! Aerith stomped towards Grey’s room.

There were no doors to block her way or view, only a curtain which was left open. She had long ago grown numb to the sight of slaughter but even still expecting to see something ghastly she was left quite shaken. Grey wasn’t that ork like she had expected, no, it was much worse.

The poor ork was down on her fours with her eyes upturned and tongue lolling. With each shake, she was dripping saliva on the floor like some rabid monster. The trust seemed merciless sending shivers down the entire ork’s body, each accompanied by that nightmarish roaring.

Aearith could feel small tingles running down her back. It was unusual for her to do so, but she pitied the ork. She looked in so much pain.

She wanted to walk away, she really did, but instead, she stood at the doorway like an idiot and stared at the abominable act. The two didn’t even seem to notice her presence. Or maybe Gray just didn’t even care. She caught herself trembling from the sight, but her eyes refused to look away.

Did the ork scream pain or… was it something else. At first, it seemed unlikely, but at a closer look, she realised those were carnal hoots of pleasure. It was animalistic and rough, it reminded her of two animals mating. Absolutely barbaric. Yet, the motion was hypnotising, trusts while seemingly merciless came with rhythm. It was almost like a perverse play. A trust, a wet slap, a shiver and then the roar of pleasure. The play repeated again and again.

Aeaith found herself wondering what if it was she in place of this ork. The idea seemed scary. No! It was impossible, Grey was a monster and she would break. Another shiver ran down her spine, it was terror. Terror at catching herself even thinking such things. Terror at realising she was getting turned on.

The orks were definitely resilient to be able to handle the abuse of such proportions. At this moment, standing still at the doorway, Aerith grew to envy the resilience of the orks. She envied the endurance of that seemingly tiny figure which was ploughed relentlessly. The size difference was unnatural, the act should be improbable, yet here it was. And the damned ork was enjoying herself. How dare she!

A sound louder and nastier than the previous others escaped the orks mouth. Then she collapsed to the floor. Her body was overtaken by convulsions. They were so strong that Aerith tough the ork might break something in her body. The act had reached its culmination; the hipnotic motion was no more.

Aerith felt a fool for still standing in this blasted doorway. For witnessing something this shameless and obscene. Embarrassing for wanting to see it all. Disgusted by enjoying it. Terrifyingly so, she was still not free; her body refused to move a single inch. Her eyes wandered from the collapsed ork to Grey and his… whatever it was she refused to call it a penis – another monster. It was leaking copious amounts of bluish goo.

Grey looked Aerith directly in the eyes. She was caught! But even then she couldn't move. She felt scared like she never was before.

“Help…” a weak cry escaped her mouth.

“Huh? Why do you disturb me? What happened, speak up.” Grey discarded the limp half-ork to his side and moved towards the half-elf.

Her eyes were locked at the monster’s monster “Help…” she cried again whilst trembling.

“Help? What happened?” Grey asked with paranoia.

“Monster…”

“What monster?” He grabbed the fazed elf by her shoulders trying to shake her out of it.

“No! No, no, no… I will break.” She began to cry.

“What happened?” He asked sternly.

“No! No! No!” the elf repeated in delirium.

“To the heck with you!”

Grey pushed the elf to the side and ran to look for the trouble shouting for his men to wake up.

“No. No. No.” The elf kept repeating.

With the Grey gone, she had finally relaxed. “I don’t want it. I don’t!” she grabbed her head with bouth hands. “What’s wrong with me!” She shook it. “Why do I want it…” She whispered to herself. “No! No, no.”

Aerith had lost it, the final sliver of her sanity, no, her last piece of pride as an elf. She too now, was just another twisted monster; both mind and body.